Sibo Chen | Toronto Metropolitan University (original) (raw)

Communication/Discourse Studies by Sibo Chen

Frontiers in Communication, 2024

The commentary explicates how techno-nationalism plays a pivotal role in shaping public communica... more The commentary explicates how techno-nationalism plays a pivotal role in shaping public communications concerning the “dual carbon” goals. China's aggressive pursuit of, and enthusiasm for, renewable energy development are infused with techno-nationalist imaginaries that regard renewable sectors as a critical front enabling China to gain strategic advantages against the United States. The phase-out of fossil fuels in China may accelerate in the years ahead and catch international observers by surprise. In light of this, the commentary problematizes the prevailing “bridge fuel” narratives (Chen, 2020) promoted by North America's liquefied natural gas (LNG) industry, which justify further expansion of fracking activities by emphasizing the future growth potential of China's LNG imports.

(Preview-only, full-text via Springer) The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic is one of the most serious h... more (Preview-only, full-text via Springer) The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic is one of the most serious health crises that humanity has ever encountered. As of July 2022, more than 550 million cases and six million deaths had been linked to the virus (WHO 2022). Along with the rampant spread of this devastating virus, the world is also witnessing rising political tensions sparked by how people with divergent ideologies perceive and respond to the pandemic. Notably, vaccine passports and similar measures encouraging COVID-19 immunisation have been a major source of public contention.

Communication and the Public, 2023

(Open-Access article, feel free to share) Recent research indicates that the economic downturn br... more (Open-Access article, feel free to share) Recent research indicates that the economic downturn brought by the COVID-19 pandemic has bolstered a "climate delay" discourse. This has led environmental scholars and policymakers to express concern over how the relationship between economic recovery and decarbonization is being framed in current public discussions about post-pandemic economic recovery. To better understand how the climate delay discourse is mediated by local media and its potential impact on public support for green transformation, this article examines relevant coverage published by popular Toronto local media throughout 2020. A qualitative thematic analysis reveals a rising public demand for decarbonizing the Canadian economy. However, this demand has also been challenged by a counter storyline that seeks to divert public attention from the severe structural crisis underlying the fossil fuel sector. The study concludes by cautioning against "climate delay" narratives' potential suppression of public support for green economic recovery.

(Preview only, full-text available at Routledge) The book's in-depth investigation of the BC LNG ... more (Preview only, full-text available at Routledge) The book's in-depth investigation of the BC LNG controversy identifies progressive extractivism as an increasingly popular policy/discursive paradigm adopted by fossil fuel advocates to legitimize unconventional fossil fuels in an era of intensifying climate crisis. It also highlights the importance of debunking the misleading "jobs versus the environment" dichotomy in mobilizing public opposition to carbon-intensive economic growth. This deeply nuanced look at energy discourse in public policy will have resonance for scholars and students working in the areas of environmental communication, rhetoric, discourse analysis, public policy, and climate change rhetoric.

Journalism Practice, 2023

(Preview-only, full article is available at Taylor and Francis) Social media’s inﬂuence on journa... more (Preview-only, full article is available at Taylor and Francis) Social media’s inﬂuence on journalistic norms and practices is a prominent theme in journalism studies. For small news organizations, there is not always a clear line between their public image and the online identities of their journalists. Focusing on such ambiguity, this article examines the integration of social media use and journalistic practice at The Local, an independent online news magazine based in Toronto, Canada, as well as its potential implications for community journalism. A qualitative thematic analysis of 300 tweets about the COVID-19 pandemic in Toronto, posted by the magazine’s oﬃcial account and its two star journalists, revealed a unique journalistic approach that prioritized hyper-local, data-informed, and aﬀective storytelling over the traditional norm of journalists as detached observers and information providers. This ﬁnding sheds light on how journalism practices at The Local and other comparable digital news startups may contribute to the revival of community journalism.

Canadian Journal of Communication, 2023

(Full article is available at CJC) Background: Given the escalating anti-Asian racism and xenopho... more (Full article is available at CJC) Background: Given the escalating anti-Asian racism and xenophobia caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, this research in brief presents a rapid review of relevant research published between March 2020 and February 2022 in cultural studies and communication journals. Analysis: The data collection identified only 13 articles published by the target journals, indicating the marginal status of communication and media studies in the expanding body of research on anti-Asian racism. Further qualitative thematic analysis of the 13 articles revealed their analytical emphasis on anti-Asian discourse and rhetoric online. Meanwhile, the structural factors underlying the reproduction of systemic racism remain underexplored. Conclusion and implications: Based on this rapid review, it is recommended that future research pay more attention to how racial tension and discrimination are woven into everyday communications across a range of media including social media, traditional media, and interpersonal communication. There is also an urgent need for communication scholars to develop intersectional lenses that facilitate the critical analysis of macro factors (class, gender,

Humanities and Social Sciences Communication, 2023

(Open-access article, feel free to share) This exploratory study examines how three major Canadia... more (Open-access article, feel free to share) This exploratory study examines how three major Canadian newspapers-the Globe and Mail, the National Post, and the Toronto Star-reported on Alberta's bitumen industry throughout 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic introduced significant market volatility. Through a combination of computational text analysis and qualitative interpretation, the study identified four recurring themes in 685 articles published by the target newspapers: (1) contention over bitumen infrastructure, (2) economic challenges for the bitumen industry, (3) political divide over the future of bitumen, (4) the bitumen industry's environmental impacts. A further qualitative assessment of these themes indicates that despite the pandemic's exposure of the structural weaknesses underlying Canada's resource-dependent economy, voices supporting the bitumen industry continue to dominate Canadian mainstream newspapers.

Journalism Practice, 2022

(Full article available at Taylor & Francis Online) This study examines how domestic alternative ... more (Full article available at Taylor & Francis Online) This study examines how domestic alternative media reported the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in Canada. It pays special attention to whether the Conversation Canada, as an emerging not-for-profit journalism organization founded on the premise of "explanatory journalism", has taken a different approach to COVID-19 reporting than three long-standing Canadian alternative media: Canada's National Observer, Rabble, and Tyee. A combination of quantitative content analysis and qualitative discourse analysis found that the pandemic's far-reaching impacts gained the main emphasis in the surveyed media. These media also provided slightly divergent accounts of what precipitated the pandemic's disastrous results. Additionally, the way the Conversation Canada framed COVID-19 expressed a close resemblance to academic writing, especially in terms of the strategic use of in-text citations for making compelling arguments. These findings highlight the indispensable role that progressive alternative media play in the effective public communication of COVID-19.

Frontiers in Environmental Science, 2021

(Open-access article, feel free to share) Over the past 2 decades, Alberta's bitumen industry has... more (Open-access article, feel free to share) Over the past 2 decades, Alberta's bitumen industry has emerged as a major point of contention in Canadian politics, with the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion (TMX) project being a recent controversy that has attracted both domestic and international media attention. This brief research report focuses on news coverage of TMX in a rarely studied form of ethnic media: WeChat newsfeeds (known as "public accounts") targeting Chinese diasporas across Canadian metropolises. A thematic analysis of TMX-related WeChat articles published between January 2016 and May 2021 reveals an overall negative attitude toward the project's opponents. This stance is mainly due to WeChat public accounts' heavy reliance on the Canadian mainstream media's framing of TMX. As a result, the Canadian mainstream media's downplay of the climate emergency and decarbonization sets the news agendas of the surveyed WeChat public accounts. Accordingly, there is an urgent need to develop non-English alternative media to engage ethnic minority groups in broader public conversations on climate change mitigation.

Journal of Transcultural Communication, 2021

(Open-access article, feel free to share) The rise of anti-Asian racism during the COVID-19 pande... more (Open-access article, feel free to share) The rise of anti-Asian racism during the COVID-19 pandemic has been a global phenomenon. This article aims to develop a transcultural communication perspective to examine the global rise in anti-Asian violence. It discusses the intersection of global and local factors underlying the rise of anti-Asian racism in Canada, namely (1) the historical and ongoing impacts of settler colonialism (2) the flaws of Canadian multiculturalism, and (3) the insider/outsider dichotomy adopted by mass media's framing of the pandemic. By explicating these structural factors from a transcultural communication perspective, this article argues that politicized transcultural discussions on white supremacy are urgently needed for initiating constructive conversations over anti-Asian racism worldwide.

Environmental Communication, 2021

China’s frenetic pace of economic development in recent decades has come with signiﬁcant environm... more China’s frenetic pace of economic development in recent decades has come with signiﬁcant environmental costs. Confronted by this dire situation, the Chinese government has proposed the concept of ecological civilization as both an aspirational goal for sustainability and a guide to environmental policymaking. Despite this concept’s current centrality in China’s environmental discourse, little is known about how it is covered by media outlets outside China. In this article, we address this research gap by analyzing the framing of ecological civilization in English-language media outside China. Our qualitative discourse analysis reveals three major storylines that deﬁne the concept in conﬂicting ways: (1) ecological civilization as an environmental governance framework, (2) ecological civilization as a misleading propaganda ploy, and (3) ecological civilization as an eco-socialist blueprint. In light of these ﬁndings, we conclude by highlighting the potential of ecological civilization for advancing global conversations about transcending capitalism.

Local Environment, 2021

This viewpoint paper discusses the rise of blockadia as a global antiextractivism movement over r... more This viewpoint paper discusses the rise of blockadia as a global antiextractivism movement over recent decades. It elucidates blockadia's distinct characters and implications for future grassroots environmentalism. Collective actions constituting the blockadia movement differ from conventional environmental campaigns in terms of its (1) embrace of confrontational tactics, (2) integration of environmental and social justice concerns, and (3) reliance of grassroots coalitions whose members often have diversified backgrounds. By elaborating these characters, I argue that the rise of blockadia reveals diminishing public trust in capitalism's capacity to avert the worst consequences of climate change. Blockadia thus presents a helpful concept to understand why climate justice activism increasingly bypasses traditional public deliberation mechanisms to intervene in energy policymaking at both state and regional levels.

Sage Open, 2020

(Open-access article, feel free to share) Shale gas extraction via hydraulic fracturing has been ... more (Open-access article, feel free to share) Shale gas extraction via hydraulic fracturing has been a controversial issue in many countries. In Canada, the provincial government of British Columbia (BC) has made relentless efforts on developing a liquefied natural gas (LNG) industry targeting potential Asian importers, which has been a heatedly debated public controversy since late 2011. Focusing on the two contending discourse coalitions formed by this policy initiative’s supporters and opponents, respectively, this article explores the intricate economic, political, and ideological struggles underlying Canadian extractivism. A qualitative discourse analysis of related stakeholder communications reveals that the pro-LNG coalition led by the BC Liberal government developed a “progressive extractivism” storyline to frame LNG exports as an unprecedented and ethical economic opportunity deserving the political support of environmentally minded British Columbians. By contrast, the anti-LNG coalition formed by progressive civil organizations, Indigenous groups, and concerned citizens engaged in fierce discursive resistance, notably via (a) adopting mainstream economic knowledge to highlight the fragile economic basis of BC LNG and (b) incorporating potent political issues such as democratic governance and reconciliation to expand public debates beyond the “jobs versus the environment” dichotomy.

Frontiers in Communication (Section: Environmental and Science Communication), 2020

(Open-access article, feel free to share) This paper examines how Canadian media have discussed t... more (Open-access article, feel free to share) This paper examines how Canadian media have discussed the role of natural gas in climate change mitigation from 2016 to 2019. It also explicates different stakeholders' varying stances on the environmental impacts of North America's ongoing “shale gas boom,” as manifested in their conflicting attitudes toward designating unconventional gas as a bridge to a low-carbon future. The data in question consist of 99 articles published by Canadian media sources, all of which included explicit references to either “bridge fuel” or “transition fuel.” Through a qualitative thematic analysis, I found that more than half of the articles adopted the conventional definition of bridge fuel. Meanwhile, there are three less common, yet noteworthy interpretations arising out of the rest of the articles, which conflict with each other in terms of their views on the relationship between unconventional gas and greenhouse gas emissions reduction. Overall, the fact that bridge fuel references only appeared in a fraction of Canadian environmental and energy news reports during the target period suggests the issue's peripheral status in the Canadian media sphere. Given this situation, the paper ends by calling for more knowledge mobilization efforts to raise public awareness of the controversial factors underlying expanding unconventional gas production and consumption.

Frontiers in Communication (Section: Environmental and Science Communication), 2020

(Open-access article, feel free to share) In Canada, the provincial government of British Columbi... more (Open-access article, feel free to share) In Canada, the provincial government of British Columbia has been keen on building an export-oriented liqueﬁed natural gas (LNG) industry since 2011. This paper examines media coverage of the Paciﬁc NorthWest LNG project (PNW), which was considered as the ﬂagship proposal leading the BC LNG development, until its abrupt cancellation in July 2017. The paper explores the differences between public, commercial, and independent media in energy reporting by tracing how six Canadian media outlets covered the rise and fall of PNW over a 36 month period. The comparative analysis reveals that when addressing the project’s cancellation, fossil fuel advocates repeatedly deployed the “jobs killed by environmentalists” argument via opinion pieces appearing in commercial newspapers. This diagnosis, however, downplayed the far-reaching impacts of falling Asian LNG market conditions prior to the cancellation. By comparison, independent media played an important role in assisting LNG opponents to communicate PNW’s fragile economic basis to a wide audience. Overall, these ﬁndings shed light upon the signiﬁcance of independent media in supporting diverse news accounts of energy controversies.

Chinese Journal of Communication, 2019

(Preview only, Full article can be accessed via Taylor & Francis) In recent years, Canada–China r... more (Preview only, Full article can be accessed via Taylor & Francis) In recent years, Canada–China relations have drawn extensive public attention in Canada. To better understand this trend, this article examines the coverage of China in the “alternative public sphere” of British Columbia, Canada’s westernmost province. Based on the qualitative critical discourse analysis of China-related online media generated by four alternative media and advocacy sources (the Tyee, the Dogwood Initiative, the David Suzuki Foundation, and the Pembina Institute), we argue that China’s image within British Columbia’s alternative public sphere is characterized by the tension between two conflicting images. On one hand, China has been framed as a powerful, foreign entity that unduly influences Canada’s economic policies and decisions on energy infrastructure. On the other hand, China has been framed positively as a global leader in renewable energy and, increasingly, in global climate negotiations. Although both images of China were found in the data analysis, the negative image was significantly more prominent than the positive one.

(Preview only, full chapter at Taylor & Francis). This chapter takes a critical discourse analysi... more (Preview only, full chapter at Taylor & Francis). This chapter takes a critical discourse analysis (CDA) approach to examine how the expansion of Alberta’s oil sands industry is discursively constructed in the Calgary Herald, a major daily newspaper. As found in previous research, the Herald has promoted the oil sands industry in a relentless manner, portraying it as besieged by well-funded and aggressive environmental lobbyists. Given the newspaper’s ties with the oil sands industry, the current study focuses less on the objectivity or truthfulness of its coverage on the oil sands; instead, the primary concern here is how it legitimizes the expansion of the oil sands industry discursively. The broader interest of this chapter lies in the interactions between discursive constructions and sociopolitical issues in environmental politics.

Environmental Communication, 2019

(Preview only, full article at Taylor & Francis) The Idle No More (INM) movement entered public v... more (Preview only, full article at Taylor & Francis) The Idle No More (INM) movement entered public view in November 2012 as a grassroots response to Canadian federal legislation Bill C-45, an omnibus bill that reduced environmental protection of lands and waters. Backed by new media technologies, Indigenous activists and their Settler Canadian allies took a series of online and offline actions to bring public attention to Bill C-45’s devastating implications and the socio-economic sufferings of Indigenous people across Canada. This explorative study examines how INM was reported by nine Canadian print media during its initial upsurge from December 2012 to January 2013. A mixed-methods content analysis reveals that although there were numerous supportive voices discussing INM’s contributions to Indigenous self-determination and environmental protection, they were overwhelmed by anti-INM rhetoric advanced by Postmedia Network and its affiliated titles. The study thus highlights the importance of promoting communication and media alternatives for future struggles against capitalism’s appropriation of nature.

(Preview only, full chapter can be accessed via Peter Lang) This chapter departs from liberal int... more (Preview only, full chapter can be accessed via Peter Lang) This chapter departs from liberal interpretations that consider the rise of environmental journalism in China as resistance against the country's authoritative media control. The overall aim is to elucidate environmental journalism's relationship to China's mounting ecological pressure and media political economy. For this purpose, the chapter analyzes two Chinese media's coverage of the 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP 21): People's Daily, the national agenda-setting newspaper, and China Daily, the most-read English language newspaper published in China. All climate change related reports in both newspapers during a 30-day period (November 21 to December 20, 2015) were selected and analyzed. By examining the ways in which the media texts depicted Chinese government's standpoints on climate change, the chapter explicates how Chinese media present climate change to their audience by focusing on economic and political conflicts underlying climate negotiations. Such discursive strategy further legitimizes China's aspiration for global environmental leadership.

Chinese Journal of Communication, 2018

(Preview only, full article available at Taylor & Francis) Beijing’s smog hazard is one of the mo... more (Preview only, full article available at Taylor & Francis) Beijing’s smog hazard is one of the most urgent issues on China’s public agenda. Draw-ing on the recently developed dynamic discourse coalition (DDC) approach, this article examines the ways in which the hazard’s initial outbreak in early 2013 was reported by four news sources: the Xinhua News Agency; China Daily; South China Morning Post; and the Associated Press. The findings suggest that although domestic and overseas media first provided different explanations for the hazard, these were eventually consol-idated into the same problem-solving discourse of “leave-it-to-experts.” This discourse included a proposal to address the hazard under the current political economic structure of industrial capitalism. The proposal, however, was constrained by an elitist bias that downplayed China’s existing social and regional inequalities. The article argues that environmental challenges such as the smog hazard call for not only a sustainable model to direct China’s future development, but also the explicit recognition of the country’s existing environmental injustices.

Frontiers in Communication, 2024

Communication and the Public, 2023

Journalism Practice, 2023

Canadian Journal of Communication, 2023

Humanities and Social Sciences Communication, 2023

Journalism Practice, 2022

Frontiers in Environmental Science, 2021

Journal of Transcultural Communication, 2021

Environmental Communication, 2021

Local Environment, 2021

Sage Open, 2020

Frontiers in Communication (Section: Environmental and Science Communication), 2020

Chinese Journal of Communication, 2019

Environmental Communication, 2019

Chinese Journal of Communication, 2018

Frontiers in Communication (Culture and Communication), 2022

(OA article, feel free to share) This perspective article details a semester-long "internationali... more (OA article, feel free to share) This perspective article details a semester-long "internationalization at home" project that was piloted during Fall 2021 as part of emergency remote teaching and learning. By presenting the project's components and overall student feedback, I demonstrate how virtual international collaboration contributes to the development of students' intercultural competence. Additionally, I emphasize that one-off faculty initiatives focused on collaborative transcultural learning will not suffice to embed this model into the local institutional matrix. Accordingly, the article concludes by advocating for stronger institutional support to leverage the promise of virtual internationalization.

Communication Teacher, 2021

The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic brings both challenges and opportunities to crisis communication ed... more The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic brings both challenges and opportunities to crisis communication education. This article reports on student perceptions of an upper-level undergraduate course on risk and crisis communication that was taught in the fall 2020 semester. The course syllabus was redesigned to assist students in better understanding pandemic-related communication challenges. For this purpose, I adopted explanatory journalistic texts published by The Conversation Canada as supplementary readings for weekly in-class discussions. I subsequently conducted a survey near the semester end to explore how the course attendees perceived the revised syllabus. According to the survey results, the course attendees overwhelmingly welcomed a crisis communication syllabus built around an ongoing crisis. They also expressed a strong preference for the adoption of explanatory journalistic texts as supplementary readings. Overall, this classroom assessment demonstrates the advantages of teaching crisis communication theories and principles through the combination of explanatory journalistic texts and real-world cases, which other communication courses may adopt in the future.

Frontiers in Communication (Section: Culture and Communication), 2021

(Open-access article, feel free to share) The outbreak and spread of COVID-19 have disrupted high... more (Open-access article, feel free to share) The outbreak and spread of COVID-19 have disrupted higher education worldwide. On March 11, 2020, the WHO declared COVID-19 as a global pandemic. In Canada, the declaration expedited the introduction of preventive measures by governments at different levels to curb the spread of the virus, including the closure of universities. Consequently, in-person courses were frantically switched to “emergency remote teaching” (ERT). At the time of writing (January 2021), countries across the northern hemisphere are undergoing the second wave of climbing COVID-19 cases. Accordingly, ERT is expected to continue at many postsecondary institutions over the next few months.

(Full access via Cambridge University Press) The Department of Linguistics at University of Victo... more (Full access via Cambridge University Press) The Department of Linguistics at University of Victoria (UVic) in Canada has a long-standing tradition of empirical approaches to the study of theoretical and applied linguistics. As part of the Faculty of Humanities, the department caters to students with a wide range of backgrounds and interests, and provides crucial language teaching support in collaboration with other teaching units at UVic. Accordingly, some applied linguistics studies concern language teaching and learning, some of which are conducted in classroom settings. In this article, we provide a brief overview of recent corrective feedback research conducted by UVic Applied Linguistics Research Group.

(Open-Access Article, Feel free to distribute) This paper explores disciplinary variations in aca... more (Open-Access Article, Feel free to distribute) This paper explores disciplinary variations in academic promotional writing via a comparative analysis of statements of purpose (SoPs) written for different disciplines. A total of 100 SoPs written by English as an additional language (EAL) applicants from mainland China were collected, which were drawn from five academic disciplines: business, engineering, humanities, science and social science. Following a corpus-driven research design, these SoP samples were analyzed in terms of their lexico-grammatical and rhetorical features. The data analysis suggests that although on the surface these SoP samples share similarities in lexico-grammatical and rhetorical features, they are quite different in terms of their preferred persuasion strategies. While SoPs written for engineering and science primarily base their self-promotional arguments upon the applicants' previous research experiences and future research prospects, those written for business, humanities and social science tend to focus on how the applicants' unique Chinese socio-cultural backgrounds would contribute to their desired programs. The above finding sheds light upon how academic genres are invariably embedded in disciplinary practices, with each discipline having its own communicative purposes, discourse community members, academic expectations and disciplinary constraints.

(Open-Access Article, Feel free to distribute) Although a growing body of research has examined t... more (Open-Access Article, Feel free to distribute) Although a growing body of research has examined the effectiveness of written corrective feedback (WCF) for improving L2 learners' grammatical accuracy, fewer studies have investigated the extent to which different educational settings would influence learners' perceptions and preferences of WCF. This paper reports on an exploratory study that investigated learners' perceptions and preferences of WCF in an EFL setting. Quantitative and qualitative data were collected from 64 intermediate, advanced-intermediate, and advanced English learners across three proficiency levels (intermediate, advanced-intermediate, and advanced) in a major provincial university of Mainland China. Through extensive written questionnaires, the study explored these learners' perceptions and preferences of the various dimensions of WCF. The results showed that although the participants tended to have a neutral opinion on the role of explicit grammar instruction, overall they expressed a favourable attitude towards error correction. In particular, they held a strong preference for extended comments on both content and grammar of their written work. The qualitative data further indicated that the participants wanted to take more initiatives in the revision process of their writing with less interference from teachers. Overall, the findings confirm the value of WCF for EFL learners outside English-speaking countries. The findings also highlight the significance of individual and contextual factors in the ongoing debate over the effectiveness of WCF.

This exploratory study examined the role of self-expressions in graduate school application essay... more This exploratory study examined the role of self-expressions in graduate school application essays (i.e. statement of purpose, SoP) and the different academic identities constructed by these expressions. Using a mixed methods research design, the research analyzed both qualitatively and quantitatively a sample of 20 SoP written in English across various disciplines. The results revealed that identity construction presents a major challenge for SoP writers regardless of their English proficiency: they tended to construct themselves only as “narrator of personal experience” or “communicator of self-evaluations”, rather than more desired roles such as “conveyor of general knowledge” and “evaluator or originator of knowledge”. Based on the findings, the paper argues that in the case of SoP, the challenges of academic writing for advanced L1/L2 writers are mainly the difficulties associated with establishing a voice of expertise in an unfamiliar and limited discursive space, instead of the lack of literacy skills or genre knowledge. As such, the paper ends by proposing that more attention should be paid to
self-representation issues in advanced EAP/ESP teaching.

Required by many graduate programs for evaluating applicants, Personal Statements (PSs) play an i... more Required by many graduate programs for evaluating applicants, Personal Statements (PSs) play an important role in graduate schools’ admission decisions. From a genre perspective, PSs present an interesting research subject as this genre combines features of both academic and professional genres in terms of its academic and self-promotional purposes. Nevertheless, the discourse characteristics of PSs have rarely been studied. This
paper reports on an exploratory study of politeness strategies used in PSs written by English-as-a-First-Language (EL1) and Chinese English-as-an-Additional-Language (CEAL) writers. Based on a total of 20 PSs (10 EL1 samples and 10 CEAL ones), this study explored differences in the politeness strategies used in PS writing by EL1 and CEAL writers, following the positive/negative politeness model by Brown and Levinson (1987). The data analysis revealed that both CEAL and EL1 writers employed a number of politeness strategies in their PSs. However, the CEAL writers demonstrated a preference for positive politeness strategies whereas the EL1 writers demonstrated more flexibility in their PSs by adopting positive and negative politeness strategies equally. These findings are noteworthy since they contradict predictions made by previous intercultural communication models, especially with reference to how and when Chinese EAL writers use politeness strategies in their academic writing. The paper concludes with suggestions for future research.

(Full paper can be accessed via De Gruyter) This paper evaluates Look Glass Neighborhood (LGN), a... more (Full paper can be accessed via De Gruyter) This paper evaluates Look Glass Neighborhood (LGN), an educational after-school program being experimented in San Diego, California. Following the theories of Vygotskian psychology and the “Fifth-Dimension” education model, LGN aims at improving bilingual children’s literacy via interactive games and letter writing activities. Based on previous studies on first language acquisition over past decades, the paper first discusses the inadequacy of research on child narrative development, especially in terms of the lack of attention to bilingual children and the insufficient discussion on applying first language acquisition theories to early literacy education. Then, it demonstrates the unique designs of the “Looking Glass Neighborhood” program by a qualitative analysis of ethnographic data from two elementary school bilingual participants in the program, explicating the program’s focuses on the interactions between oral performance and content-focused co-writing activities. Finally, the paper explores the possibility to embed some design elements of LGN such as content-based, co-writing activities and indirect oral corrective feedback into China’s current kindergarten and elementary EFL curriculums.

(Full paper can be accessed via Peter Lang) Globalization has changed the trend in foreign langua... more (Full paper can be accessed via Peter Lang) Globalization has changed the trend in foreign language education. It makes communicative competence become the primary teaching goal and also promotes the spread of less commonly taught languages (LCTLs). This chapter reviews the topic of Chinese-English contrastive rhetoric and discusses its potential influence on Chinese as a Foreign Language (CFL) learners’ communicative competence development. Three major distinctions between English and Chinese rhetoric have been suggested by previous studies, namely directness versus indirectness, analogy versus comparison, and collectivism versus individualism. These distinctions can be attributed to the different philosophical roots and cultural backgrounds of English and Chinese. These distinctions may affect CFL learners’ communicative competence at the grammatical, discoursal, and sociocultural levels as well as their confidence, or even cause difficulties for their comprehension of Chinese discourse. Thus, it is imperative to consider embedding rhetoric instruction in future CFL curriculums. Following such proposal, several modifications regarding Chinese rhetoric instruction are proposed and explicated for future curriculums of Teaching Chinese as a Foreign Language (TCFL).

(Full paper can be accessed via De Gruyter) Teaching Chinese as a Foreign Language (TCFL) has bec... more (Full paper can be accessed via De Gruyter) Teaching Chinese as a Foreign Language (TCFL) has become a prevalent phenomenon around the world in recent years. Current TCFL pedagogies are influenced by Teaching English
as a Second/Foreign Language (TESL/TEFL) so much that many traditional TESL/TEFL pedagogies such as the Grammar-Translation approach and the Audio-Lingual approach
dominate current Chinese classes. This article provides an introduction and an initial validation of a newly developed pedagogy, Sheltered Initiation Language Learning (SILL), and its recent application in TCFL in San Diego, California. Compared with traditional ESL/EFL pedagogies which have been criticized for the neglect of the learner’s communicative development,
SILL is innovative for its emphasis on authentic and spontaneous speech, modified input as well as asymmetric teaching sequencing. With these factors, SILL is designed to promote students’ oral language skills for communicating effectively in concrete situations. The initial validation of SILL suggests that despite several fallacies in classroom activity designs, SILL is a successful pedagogy welcomed by both teachers and students. Based on these discussions, the article proposes that SILL has the potential to be an effective pedagogy for Chinese Oral Language Teaching.

An effective lexical instruction method serves as an important component in any English as an Add... more An effective lexical instruction method serves as an important component in any English as an Additional Language (EAL) program. In recent years, the advancement of Internet technologies has dramatically changed the online English video distribution. Now many TV dramas in the United States can be watched by Chinese EAL learners with the support of bilingual (English/Mandarin) subtitling. Thus it is possible to use English TV drama as an effective method for EAL lexical instruction. This article reports a corpus-based study relating to the popular US TV sitcom Friends. The research question is whether the language in the sitcom can provide sufficient lexical input for Chinese EAL learners. With the utilization of corpus-based methodology, the study found that most tokens in the scripts of the sitcom were in concordance with the most frequent lexical items in the British National Corpus (BNC) and the Academic Word List (AWL), which indicates that English TV sitcoms may serve as an effective tool for EAL lexical instructions.

Among various study topics of advanced second language (L2) learners, mental lexicon shares a uni... more Among various study topics of advanced second language (L2) learners, mental lexicon shares a unique significance. This paper will introduce a comparative experiment between advanced Chinese English as a Second Language (CESL) learners and English as first language (EL1) speakers. The research question of the study is whether advanced CESL learners have a different English mental lexicon organization compared with EL1 speakers. The study adopts the word association test as its main research method. The main finding of the experiment is that advanced Chinese ESL learners' mental lexicons are less active and more limited than EL1 speakers. Based on the finding, the study concludes that the two test groups may apply different models for their mental lexicon organizations. The result of the ESL group prefers the Similarity-based Model while the mental lexicon organization of the EL1 group fits the Theory-based Model. Finally, the paper discusses the pedagogical implications of the study. It confirms the importance of lexical instruction in advanced L2 instruction and suggests combining vocabulary's semantic information with various social contexts to create effective lexical instruction for learners.

This paper reports a comparative analysis of the news coverage of the 2011 Libyan civil war in tw... more This paper reports a comparative analysis of the news coverage of the 2011 Libyan civil war in two national media (China Daily and The New York Times). The 2011 Libyan civil war attracted wide attention and was extensively covered by various media around the world. However, news discourse regarding the war was constructed differently across various news agencies as a result of their clashing ideologies. Based on corpus linguistics methods, two small corpora with a total of 22,412 tokens were compiled and the comparative analyses of the two corpora revealed the following results. First, although the two corpora shared a lot of commonalities in word frequency, differences still exist in several high ranking lemmas. On the one hand, words such as “Qaddafi” and “war” ranked similarly in the two corpora’s lexical frequency lists; on the other hand, the frequencies of the lemma “rebel/rebels” were much higher in The New York Times corpus than in the China Daily corpus, which indicated that the image of the rebel received more attention in the reports by The New York Times than in those by China Daily. Second, although the word “Qaddafi” achieved similar frequencies in the two corpora, a follow-up collocation analysis showed that the images of “Qaddafi” contrasted with each other in the two corpora. In The New York Times corpus, the words and phrases collocating with “Qaddafi” were mainly negative descriptions and highlighted the pressure on Qaddafi whereas many neutral and even positive descriptions of Qaddafi appeared in the China Daily corpus. Based on these findings, the paper further discusses how discursive devices are applied in news coverage of warfare, as well as some methodological implications of the case study.

Previous studies have suggested that Mandarin and English speakers use different phonetic cues in... more Previous studies have suggested that Mandarin and English speakers use different phonetic cues in speech perception. In particular, there are many differences between English and Mandarin in terms of lexical stress patterns. Different tones are used to change lexical meanings in Mandarin, whereas such phenomena do not exist in English, which indicates potential inter-language interferences in the perception of English lexical stress by Mandarin English-as-an-Additional-Language (EAL) learners. The current paper discusses Mandarin EAL learners’ perception of English lexical stress by critically reviewing previous studies. In general, findings have suggested that Mandarin EAL learners use various phonetic cues in English lexical stress perception, though which phonetic cues are primarily used is still under debate. The paper further identifies several variables that may account for the contrastive findings in previous studies and discusses their potential implications for EAL pedagogy development.

As one of the most studied syntactic phenomena in modern Mandarin Chinese, the Ba construction ha... more As one of the most studied syntactic phenomena in modern Mandarin Chinese, the Ba construction has received continuous attention in Chinese syntax literature while its complex properties have excluded a clear analysis. Recently, the Ba has been proposed as either an overtly realized little verb (v) in the Verbal Shell structure or a functional head which takes the vP as its complement. Nevertheless, which proposal of the two is more appropriate for the Ba construction is still in question. The present paper analyzes the two constructions and proposes that the Ba is the head of a “baP” which takes the vP as its complement. The paper first reviews the syntactic and semantic properties of the Ba construction and shows that in modern Mandarin Chinese, the Ba is unlikely to function as a verb. Then, the case checking procedure of the Ba construction is analyzed, which provides new supporting evidence for treating Ba as a functional head higher than vP. Finally, the “baP” proposal is tested in the five major variants of the Ba construction. Based on the above analyses, the paper comes to the conclusion that the “baP” structure better represents the various Ba sentences than the little verb proposal.

An effective lexical instruction method serves as an important component in any English as an Add... more An effective lexical instruction method serves as an important component in any English as an Additional Language (EAL) program. In recent years, the advancement of Internet technologies has dramatically changed the online English video distribution. Now many TV dramas in the United States can be watched by Chinese EAL learners with the support of bilingual (English/Mandarin) subtitling. Thus it is possible to used English TV Drama as an effective method for EAL lexical instruction. This article reports a corpus-based study in which the popular US TV sitcom Friends was focused. The research question was whether the language in the sitcom can provide sufficient lexical input for Chinese EAL learners. With the utilization of corpus-based methodology, the study found that most tokens in the scripts of the sitcom were in concordance with the most frequent lexical items in the British National Corpus (BNC) and the Academic Word List (AWL), which indicated that English TV sitcoms may serve as an effective tool for EAL lexical instructions.

Conversation Canada, 2023

The past few years have witnessed a surge in the popularity and momentum of environmental, social... more The past few years have witnessed a surge in the popularity and momentum of environmental, social and governance (ESG) investing-a form of responsible investing that aligns financial returns with positive environmental and social ones.

Conversation Canada, 2022

Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine has brought fossil fuels and geopolitics to the forefront of... more Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine has brought fossil fuels and geopolitics to the forefront of public discussion. In an effort to evade economic sanctions, Russia has weaponized its energy exports.

Conversation Canada, 2021

One of the surprises to come out of COP26 was the U.S.-China joint declaration on enhancing clima... more One of the surprises to come out of COP26 was the U.S.-China joint declaration on enhancing climate action through the 2020s. Although the declaration lacked details, it offers a positive sign of progress toward curbing global greenhouse gas emissions, in part because China and the United States are the world’s two largest emitters of greenhouse gases.

Conversation Canada, 2021

Vaccine passports have become a major point of contention in the 2021 federal election. Currently... more Vaccine passports have become a major point of contention in the 2021 federal election. Currently, more than 73 per cent of Canada's population have received at least one dose of vaccine, and the country's response to COVID-19 continues to be a top priority for voters. This is likely why current public health efforts have concentrated on expanding vaccine access and implementing communication strategies (like motivational interviewing) to increase vaccination rates. But, as seen through recent anti-vax protests, especially those targeting schools and hospitals, there is a worrisome convergence of the anti-vaccine movement and far-right political extremism. And on the frontline of these anti-vax protests are people occupied by extreme rage who are threatening to exert violence against whoever they deem as "outsiders" and "traitors." An anti-vaccination protester holds an upside down Canadian flag during a demonstration outside the venue of a Liberal Party election campaign

Conversation Canada, 2021

In recent weeks, the discovery of unmarked burial sites at residential schools in British Columbi... more In recent weeks, the discovery of unmarked burial sites at residential schools in British Columbia and Saskatchewan has unleashed shock, anger and grief across Canada. It’s also intensified discussions on how to address Canada’s past and ongoing settler colonialism. In the city of Toronto, there are fiercely divided opinions about whether Ryerson University should change its name given its namesake’s role in designing the residential school system.

Conversation Canada, 2021

The race for developing effective COVID-19 vaccines has put the pharmaceutical industry in the sp... more The race for developing effective COVID-19 vaccines has put the pharmaceutical industry in the spotlight. Over the past few months, the world has witnessed rapid clinical trials and approvals of several highly effective vaccines like Pfizer, Moderna and AstraZeneca. This unprecedented achievement has been made possible by close intra-industry, state industry and international collaborations. Big Pharma's proactive approach to vaccine development has also brought an unexpected consequence: its reputation has been notably enhanced since early 2020. A survey conducted in February 2021 found that almost two-thirds of Americans now give the pharmaceutical industry high marks. But reputation risks loom even as pharma companies are being celebrated as pandemic heroes.

Conversation Canada, 2021

Alberta's Ministry of Advanced Education recently ordered the province's four major research univ... more Alberta's Ministry of Advanced Education recently ordered the province's four major research universities to suspend pursuing new or renewed partnerships with organizations linked to China or the Chinese Communist Party. This order has triggered serious concern among Canadian scholars and academic institutions.

The Conversation Canada, 2021

It’s a frightening and perplexing time for Canadians who have either been vaccinated against COVI... more It’s a frightening and perplexing time for Canadians who have either been vaccinated against COVID-19 or are trying to determine what vaccine to get. On May 3, the National Advisory Committee on Immunization (NACI) updated its COVID-19 vaccine statement and recommended that Canadians less likely to contract COVID-19 may want to wait for a Pfizer or Moderna vaccine instead of AstraZeneca (AZ). Days later, Ontario said it would not administer AZ as a first dose due to the risk of rare blood clots.

The Conversation Canada, 2021

Anti-Asian racism has been present in Canada for centuries. It is deeply rooted in the historical... more Anti-Asian racism has been present in Canada for centuries. It is deeply rooted in the historical formation of Canada through the Chinese head tax, Japanese internment camps, the Electoral Franchise Act, which explicitly denied Chinese Canadians the right to vote, and more. It is embedded within the minds of Canadians.

The Conversation Canada, 2021

Despite Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s recent comment that Canada and the United States will mov... more Despite Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s recent comment that Canada and the United States will move forward after the cancellation of the Keystone XL pipeline project, the public debate on the fate of Alberta’s troubled bitumen sector still burns.

The Conversation Canada, 2020

The United States’ election results have been a nail-biter that many polls did not predict. After... more The United States’ election results have been a nail-biter that many polls did not predict. After days of uncertainty, the votes have tipped in favour of Joe Biden, and the U.S. president-elect has since kicked off his transition team to tackle, among other things, climate change.

During campaigning, Pennsylvania received a lot of attention from both presidential candidates. The state sits atop the Marcellus shale, a major source of natural gas; it is the second-largest producer of natural gas in the U.S., after Texas. The industry employs about 32,000 people in Pennsylvania, but clean energy is among the fastest growing sectors in the state.

Some speculated that Biden’s stance on fossil fuel divestment, especially his comments during the final presidential debate on moving away from fossil fuels, might have turned away voters worried about their job security in these key states. Yet, the election results have shown the opposite.

LSE Review of Books, 2023

In Stopping Oil: Climate Justice and Hope, Sophie Bond, Amanda Thomas and Gradon Diprose examine ... more In Stopping Oil: Climate Justice and Hope, Sophie Bond, Amanda Thomas and Gradon Diprose examine Aotearoa New Zealand’s deep-sea oil development agenda in recent decades and the climate justice movement that mobilised in response to it. The book offers a powerful narrative account of the economic, political, social, and cultural contexts that have shaped the country’s energy politics, including the rich history of indigenous activism and struggle for environmental democracy, writes Sibo Chen.

LSE Review of Books , 2022

In Global Burning: Rising Antidemocracy and the Climate Crisis, Eve Darian-Smith connects wildfir... more In Global Burning: Rising Antidemocracy and the Climate Crisis, Eve Darian-Smith connects wildfires to the broader economic, social and political issues underlying climate change, exploring how they have become important signifiers of an unfolding global calamity. This is a timely and thought-provoking book that shows that there will be no magic solution to our current predicament until we collectively embrace a fundamental rethinking of human-nature relations and life beyond capitalism, writes Sibo Chen.

Canadian Journal of Communication, 2022

What effects has the intensifying development of Western Canada’s fossil fuel resources had on Ca... more What effects has the intensifying development of Western Canada’s fossil fuel resources had on Canada’s economic and ecological well-being? How are we to comprehend the Canadian fossil fuel industry’s evolving relationships to other sectors? Can grassroots movements initiate a transition from fossil capitalism to energy democracy? These are some of the key questions addressed in William K. Carroll’s edited collection, Regime of Obstruction: How Corporate Power Blocks Energy Democracy. This book consists of 18 chapters featuring research ﬁndings from the Corporate Mapping Project, a research and public engagement initiative launched in 2015 with the aim of producing comprehensive knowledge of how the concentrated power of fossil capital shapes Canada’s climate policy. The central argument advanced by the contributors is that “the organization of economic power, concretized in large [fossil fuel] corporations and extending into political and cultural life in complex, multifaceted ways, presents a set of blockages” (p. 4) that make Canada a climate laggard. Carroll views these blockages as a “regime of obstruction.” This said, in elucidating how corporate power dominates Canada’s energy policy agenda a number of contributions also engage with the ways in which growing grassroots resistance is challenging the regime’s formidable hegemonic practices.

LSE Review of Books , 2022

In Anthropocene Islands: Entangled Worlds, Jonathan Pugh and David Chandler explore the importanc... more In Anthropocene Islands: Entangled Worlds, Jonathan Pugh and David Chandler explore the importance of thinking with islands in the Anthropocene, showing how island thinking and practices can provide solutions to our planetary crises. This thought-provoking book delivers a loud and clear message that a research agenda for island studies is urgently needed in the Anthropocene era, writes Sibo Chen.

LSE Review of Books, 2021

In Ending Fossil Fuels: Why Net Zero is Not Enough, Holly Jean Buck argues that the framework of ... more In Ending Fossil Fuels: Why Net Zero is Not Enough, Holly Jean Buck argues that the framework of net zero and its concentration on emissions diverts public and policy attention from the fundamental task of ending the use of fossil fuels to ensure effective and lasting climate change mitigation. Reviewing the book ahead of the start of COP26, Sibo Chen recommends this thought-provoking analysis of the barriers to decarbonisation to anyone concerned about the looming climate catastrophe.

LSE Review of Books, 2021

In The Anthropocene in Global Media: Neutralizing the Risk, editor Leslie Sklair brings together ... more In The Anthropocene in Global Media: Neutralizing the Risk, editor Leslie Sklair brings together contributors to explore how the Anthropocene is reported in mass media globally. Full of rich empirical details and insightful discussions, this enlightening book deserves the attention of anyone interested in evolving public discourses of the Anthropocene, recommends Sibo Chen.

LSE Review of Books, 2021

In Resource Radicals: From Petro-Nationalism to Post-Extractivism in Ecuador, Thea Riofrancos exa... more In Resource Radicals: From Petro-Nationalism to Post-Extractivism in Ecuador, Thea Riofrancos examines how conflicting visions of resource extraction have divided the Ecuadorian Left, focusing particularly on the struggles between the Ecuadorian government and grassroots anti-extractivism activists during the era of Rafael Correa’s governance. This is an insightful and thought-provoking book that offers a timely contribution to scholarship exploring political struggles over resource-driven development, finds Sibo Chen.

(Full article via Sage) Scholars have long debated the ambivalence embedded in online behaviours,... more (Full article via Sage) Scholars have long debated the ambivalence embedded in online behaviours, as shown in memes, trolling and weird Internet jokes. Recently, Donald Trump’s surprising win of the 2016 US Presidential Election and the notable ascent of conservative populism along with it have prompted an ongoing meme war in online spaces such as Facebook, Tumblr, 4chan and Reddit. In this context, The Ambivalent Internet invites us to consider the social and cultural significance of ambivalent online expressions.

Scott Timcke’s Capital, State, Empire: The New American Way of Digital Warfare is a thought-provo... more Scott Timcke’s Capital, State, Empire: The New American
Way of Digital Warfare is a thought-provoking inquiry into how the United States’ security apparatuses militarize communication technologies. Following the tradition of radical political economy, the book offers a materialist critique of digital society. It analyzes how new communication technologies facilitate the reproduction of global capitalism under American paramountcy. The central proposition advanced by Timcke is that we have entered an age of digital coercion, with new communication technologies expanding extraction, dispossession, and exploitation, under capitalism.

Although the history of Communication for Development (C4D) can be traced back to communication s... more Although the history of Communication for Development (C4D) can be traced back to communication studies’ formal establishment in the first half of the twentieth century, the swift expansion of information and communication technologies (ICTs) over the past two decades has re-shaped C4D into a trendy field with growing theoretical and policy attention. Authored by Emile G. McAnany, Saving the World: A Brief History of Communication for Development and Social Change presents a chronological and theoretical summary of communication’s complex role in development and social change as well as the shifts of paradigms within C4D since the end of World War II. According to McAnany, the purpose of this book is three-fold: to explore how theories and practices have evolved along with the development of communication technologies, to evaluate the current status of C4D in the long-term struggle for development and social change, and to better understand the criteria for assessing the influence of C4D-related endeavours. In this regard, Saving the World is both an intellectual history of communication’s intersections with projects aiming for fostering prosperity, as well as a call for continuing research and policy attention to communication’s great potential in future policy considerations.

The study of knowledge workers is one of the most popular subﬁelds of political economy in commun... more The study of knowledge workers is one of the most popular subﬁelds of political economy in communication research today. With their numbers growing dramatically in developing countries, knowledge workers are playing an increasingly important role in labour movements globally. Focusing on China’s publishing industry, Jianhua Yao’s Knowledge Workers in Contemporary China presents a panoramic view of the challenges con-fronting media workers, particularly editors, in China. The book aims to address four interrelated questions: 1) What changes have occurred in the labour process of Chinese media workers, especially editors? 2) How do we understand these changes in the con-text of China’s media reform as well as social transformation? 3) What are the impacts of technological innovations and China’s integration to global capitalism on Chinese editors? 4) How are Chinese media workers responding to their deteriorating working environments today?

Mobilities, Knowledge, and Social Justice offers a thought-provoking synthesis exploring contempo... more Mobilities, Knowledge, and Social Justice offers a thought-provoking synthesis exploring contemporary movements of capital, people, social networks, and information, and how the complex interrelations between mobility and knowledge have created the “mobility-knowledge nexus.” That is, how various forms of mobility across the globe have depended on and generated specific types of knowledge, and how such interactions lead to new forms of inequality and calls for social justice.

(Final version available at Sage) This thought-provoking book by Shi-xu seeks to provide a system... more (Final version available at Sage) This thought-provoking book by Shi-xu seeks to provide a systematic introduction to cultural discourse studies (CDS) and especially its Chinese expression, Chinese dis-course studies (CNDS). The book’s overarching argument is that critical discourse analysis (CDA), as a fast-growing discipline and research community, has constituted a global hegemonic discourse that promotes the universalization and globalization of the Western cultural system, including its philosophical assumptions, concepts, theories, methodological paradigms and so on; as such, it is imperative for concerned researchers to develop a locally grounded and globally minded approach that can de-Westernize discourse research practice. In this vein, Shi-xu’s proposal aims at elaborating a critical reflection on CDA itself and suggesting a more culturally specific approach to discourse and communication research.

Climate change presents some of the most urgent challenges for journalism today. Any casual glimp... more Climate change presents some of the most urgent challenges for journalism today. Any casual glimpse at news headlines reveals how the current practices of media institutions are situated in climate change, with its associated economic, political, and social issues heatedly debated on a daily basis between the lines of news stories. Media Meets Climate: The Global Challenge for Journalism, edited by Elisabeth Eide and Risto Kunelius, focuses on how the emerging global challenges imposed by climate change are mediated across the world and how journalism interacts with these challenges. Based upon research from the MediaClimate project (see Eide, Kunelius, & Kumpu, 2010), this volume takes a comparative look at news coverage of global climate negotiations, primarily the Copenhagen and Durban summits in 2009 and 2011. The empirical data mainly consist of summit reports by mainstream newspapers across 18 countries, and the analyses offer refreshing and valuable transnational insights into the complex and juxtaposing themes of global environmental politics.

The key message delivered by Yellow Ribbons: The Militarization of National Identity in Canada (2... more The key message delivered by Yellow Ribbons: The Militarization of National Identity in Canada (2013) is that Canada’s national identity has been dramatically changed along with the country’s deepening involvement in the “War on Terror”. Canada, once celebrated for its (somewhat mythicized) peacekeeping and multiculturalism, is moving toward a self-righteous nationalism with increasing militaristic cultural representations. Although the thesis of Canada moving toward a “Military-Industrial-Communications” complex remains relatively unattended and thus invites further academic inquires, there is no doubt that Canada’s political economy and military interests have undergone fundamental changes over the past decade. As shown in the recent public debates on Bill C-51 and Canada’s participation in anti-ISIS missions, communication has played a crucial factor for legitimizing or contesting the country’s increasingly proactive role in the “War on Terror”. As such, this concise book presents a timely and welcome intellectual contribution that would appeal to both academic and general readers interested in recent development of Canadian international affairs.

Linguistlist.org, 2021

“The Art of Political Storytelling” by Philip Seargeant offers readers an in-depth examination of... more “The Art of Political Storytelling” by Philip Seargeant offers readers an in-depth examination of storytelling’s crucial role in contemporary political discourse. Drawing upon theoretical insights from rhetoric and critical discourse studies, the author discusses the success of recent populist movements — be it Donald Trump’s path to the U.S. Presidency, the Brexit Campaign, or Jair Bolsonaro’s uprising in Brazil — in terms of the resemblance between their propaganda tactics and the storylines found in classic dramas, Hollywood films and popular culture. Consisting of twelve chapters, the book makes a timely diagnosis of the “post-truth” predicament and illuminates the urgency of changing progressive political narratives to counter the spread of misinformation.

Linguistlist.org

Previously published as a special issue of Journal of Language and Politics (Volume 13, Issue 4),... more Previously published as a special issue of Journal of Language and Politics (Volume 13, Issue 4), Occupy: The spatial dynamics of discourse in global protest movements explores the complex interplay between spatial and communicative practices within recent global social movements. From the Arab Spring to the Occupy Movement, the unprecedented wave of large-scale protests has captured public attention across the globe. The growing momentum of these protests invites us to re-conceptualize democracy and political practices in contemporary politics. A distinctive feature of these protests is the occupation of notable public spaces (e.g. Tahrir Square in Cairo and Zuccotti Park in New York) by protesters, who have transformed these spaces from centers of the capitalist system into influential counter-spaces.

The growing popularity of computer mediated communication (CMC), as shown in mushrooming digital ... more The growing popularity of computer mediated communication (CMC), as shown in mushrooming digital technologies available for the public, has brought a unique challenge for researchers: new, emerging online practices are taken for granted so quickly that when they have been sufficiently incorporated into teaching and research, a sense of datedness is almost inevitable. As such, the merit of CMC research often hinges on whether a study can " capture the moment ", revealing the deeper social-cultural dynamics that will exist beyond digital infrastructure. In this regard, " Discourse and identity on Facebook " offers an insightful exploration into online identity construction and performance. It adds another welcoming volume to the widely-circulated Bloomsbury Discourse Series. The central focus of the volume is how Facebook, as a vibrant socio-cultural arena, mediates online identity manifestations. Based on a detailed longitudinal online ethnography of five Greek Facebook users, it convincingly demonstrates the diversity and complexity of online identity formation.

Linguistlist.org.

The study of life histories is quite limited in applied linguistics. While many of us are interes... more The study of life histories is quite limited in applied linguistics. While many of us are interested in how the field's leading scholars established their careers and research trajectories, usually such anecdotes are only to be found during conference socials or intimate conversations. In response to such curiosity, the publication of " Becoming and being an applied linguist " edited by Rod Ellis brings us a fascinating read that summarizes the individual paths of 13 well-established applied linguists. Through these personal stories, the volume also sheds light upon several general trends in applied linguistics' own development over the past five decades.

As a relatively young sub-discipline of linguistics, corpus linguistics has experienced exponenti... more As a relatively young sub-discipline of linguistics, corpus linguistics has experienced exponential growth since the 1960s, with more and more studies being conducted by scholars across the globe. Founded in Oslo on 12th February 1977, the International Computer Archive of Modern and Medieval English (ICAME) has been a leading organization in this field, mainly focusing on compiling and distributing English language corpora for computer processing and linguistic research (ICAME, n.d.). Each year, ICAME hosts a symposium for its members. The current volume, “Corpus Linguistics on the Move”, provides a representative sample of the papers presented at the 34th ICAME conference, held in Santiago de Compostela in May 2013. This volume offers a succinct reflection of the ICAME community’s major areas of interest, as well as current trends in corpus linguistics in general.

English is widely recognized as a lingua franca for scholarly communication today. As more and mo... more English is widely recognized as a lingua franca for scholarly communication today. As more and more leading academic journals are published in English, authors who use English as an additional language (EAL) are experiencing mounting pressure to adjust their writing styles accordingly to adopt the Anglo-Saxon academic writing norms. Following this trend, intercultural variations in academic discourse have become a prominent research field in discourse analysis. The current volume, “Academic discourse across cultures” edited by Igor Lakić, Branka Živković and Milica Vuković, explores the intercultural differences in academic writing norms, especially the differences in academic discourse between international journals and Montenegrin/Serbian journals. According to the editors, the overarching goal of this volume is to raise awareness among EAL writers regarding potential linguistic obstacles for publishing in international journals, thereby providing them with knowledge of delivering their research to the international academic community.

Persuasion is an omnipresent phenomenon. From advertisements to political speeches, our daily liv... more Persuasion is an omnipresent phenomenon. From advertisements to political speeches, our daily lives are surrounded by persuasive communications. As a key phenomenon of language use, persuasion has been studied by both linguists and rhetoricians. Although many scholars used to consider persuasion as instrumental, unidirectional, and agonistic, recently there has been a shift of research paradigm, in which persuasion is redefined as bidirectional and inherently dialogic (Bakhtin, 1986). This dialogic turn in rhetoric studies has been well captured in " Persuasive Games in Political and Professional Dialogue ".

The development of corpus linguistics has had remarkable impact on discourse analysis: with the g... more The development of corpus linguistics has had remarkable impact on discourse analysis: with the growing availability of large collections of texts and computational methods, it is possible for discourse analysts today to use millions of words as research data to investigate linguistic variations as well as hidden messages underlying discursive representations. Edited by Paul Baker and Tony McEnery, Corpora and Discourse Studies, addresses current trends of corpus-driven discourse analysis by presenting 13 independent studies that pay particular attention to the adoption of qualitative and quantitative corpus methods. The main focus of this collection is the contribution of corpora in revealing patterns of a wide range of written, spoken, multimodal, and electronic discourses.

As the latest volume of the Routledge Critical Studies in Discourse Series, "discourse of ideolog... more As the latest volume of the Routledge Critical Studies in Discourse Series, "discourse of ideology and identity" by Chris Featherman aims to explore the ways in which ideologies and identities are discursively constructed during social movements. Based on a case study of the opposition movement against the 2009 Iranian presidential election results, the book questions the master narratives offered by Western legacy media on Iran and its 2009 post-election crisis and argues that new media discourses such as Twitter tweets and Flickr uploads by activists re-entextualize the crisis in a reticulated, transnational public sphere. The book also examines how English, as a borrowed language for many Iranian protesters, contributes to the construction of transnational imaginaries by shaping the protesters' online identifications. The book consists of six chapters and two appendices, with Chapters Three, Four and Five presenting the major research findings.

Language and Identity is a collection of twelve articles analyzing the interrelationships between... more Language and Identity is a collection of twelve articles analyzing the interrelationships between language and identity and their associated complex socio-economic and cultural issues. The key message delivered by this volume is that identities are not only expressed through but also constructed by language. Daily linguistic phenomena are inscribed with ideological meanings and power struggles over identity expressions. Language thus serves as a 'double-edged sword' for identity, bringing both opportunity and marginalization. On the one hand, learning a new language such as English offers socio-economic opportunities and new ways for self-expression; on the other hand, the hegemonic status of dominant languages such as English and Spanish would lead to the silence of marginalized ethnic groups and even cultural death in extreme cases.

Presenting research on selected political texts in the British context, "Discourse and Democracy"... more Presenting research on selected political texts in the British context, "Discourse and Democracy" offers a critical examination of democracy as it is presented and practiced in Britain and, to a lesser extent, other advanced liberal states. The central theme of this book is the critique of the "paradox of contemporary democracy". As the author argues in the beginning of the book, contemporary democratic practices in liberal states exist in a paradoxical form:

Discourse Studies (hereafter as "DS") is a fast-growing field studying the social production of m... more Discourse Studies (hereafter as "DS") is a fast-growing field studying the social production of meaning. In recent years, the swift development of DS has attracted researchers across the entire spectrum of the humanities and social sciences. Today, as a truly interdisciplinary field, DS is at the crossroads of language and society. Such an interdisciplinary tendency, however, has also created a unique gap within the existing DS literature: despite the proliferation of new publications on DS in the market, few of them are able to offer comprehensive coverage of the major approaches within DS due to the increasing complexity of the field. Therefore, it is encouraging to see the publication of "The Discourse Studies Reader", which offers a timely solution to the problem.

It is evident that Discourse Analysis (henceforth DA) has enjoyed enormous growth in recent decad... more It is evident that Discourse Analysis (henceforth DA) has enjoyed enormous growth in recent decades, as indicated by the swift increase of publications, conferences, and graduate programs in this field. Within less than 50 years, DA has not only acquired the integrity and significance of a well-established discipline, but also extended the conventional boundaries of linguistics to other disciplines such as communication, sociology, and political science (Bhatia, Flowerdew & Jones, 2008). The prevalence of DA, however, has also created numerous misunderstandings about this discipline, especially among young undergraduates who have just started their linguistic journeys. Meanwhile, there seems to be a common dilemma for many DA instructors: despite the abundance of DA textbooks in the market, most of them are essentially writing about "what is DA" rather than "how to do DA". As a result, many undergraduates complete a DA course with general knowledge of DA, but still don't know how to conduct effective DA research.

Living in the age of information, we are surrounded by news reports. These stories not only keep ... more Living in the age of information, we are surrounded by news reports. These stories not only keep us updated on current affairs around the globe, but also fundamentally shape our values, beliefs, and behaviors through their agenda-setting and framing effects. Thus, it is crucial for undergraduates who are interested in news to learn the production of news texts and the functions of language within this process.

Although investigations of political language have been a pivotal topic in Critical Discourse Ana... more Although investigations of political language have been a pivotal topic in Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA), the broad body of previous studies has done relatively little to provide a comprehensive and organized set of answers to the theoretical complexities of political genre research. Given that situation, "Analyzing Genres in Political Communication" has a two-fold objective: "(1) to make a contribution to the study of genres in political communication; and (2) to offer insights that add to the analysis of communicative genres in general (p. 11)". With contributions from a range of experts with diverse backgrounds, this edited collection presents the latest developments in political genre analysis and can be informative for researchers in a wide range of disciplines, such as Applied Linguistics, Communication, Political Science, and other fields.

Originally Published at Linguistlist.org, Issue 24.3452 SUMMARY Similar to other PhD dissertation... more Originally Published at Linguistlist.org, Issue 24.3452 SUMMARY Similar to other PhD dissertations published by the Netherlands Graduate School of Linguistics, "Small Words, Big Effects?" presents a latest development in linguistics and is a very informative read for researchers in psycholinguistics and discourse analysis. The purpose of this book is to provide a theoretical framework for subjective versus objective causal connectives (i.e. words such as "so", "because", and "therefore" that are placed between two clauses to mark causal relations) in discourse processing. The project presented in this book investigates whether the difference between subjective and objective causal connectives is relevant in discourse online processing.

$Research paper thumbnail of Blackler, J., & Chen, S. (2015). Telling the fracking truth: A pentadic analysis on the rhetoric of the LNG expansion in British Columbia. Stream: Culture/Politics/Technology, 7(1), 16-22.$

This paper presents an exploratory study that investigates the latent motives in the public reaso... more This paper presents an exploratory study that investigates the latent motives in the public reasoning and rhetoric of hydraulic fracturing expansion offered by the current government of British Columbia. A pentadic analysis was conducted on a policy strategy report titled British Columbia’s Natural Gas Strategy. The results of the analysis demonstrate how rhetorical devices are applied for legitimizing the exploitation of the natural gas resources in BC.

Over the past twenty years, public media services worldwide have been facing increasing pressure ... more Over the past twenty years, public media services worldwide have been facing increasing pressure from commercialization, marketization, and privatization. This situation is exemplified by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation’s (CBC) latest revenue shortfall and the subsequent austerity measures of the corporation. Indeed, CBC, as an iconic corporation of Canadian’s media landscape, is key to the country’s future policy-making in the media realm. The CBC’s current crisis, already exert-ing significant pressures towards the restructuring of the corporation, is seen by some critics as a warning of the corporation’s potential imminent collapse (Rowland, 2013). However, just as there has be a constant pressure toward marketization over public media, over the past few years the struggles of public media also offer a precious opportunity to re-imagine an alternative future for public communication services.

Working papers are academic articles in various stages of completion, which represents a signific... more Working papers are academic articles in various stages of completion, which represents a significant publication venue in various academic disciplines. Nonetheless, there have been considerable amount of critiques on working paper in recent years, especially on its quality and conflict with formal publications. Given the above situation, this article offers a defence of the academic values of working papers. After outlining and addressing common misunderstandings of working papers, the article discusses their four major benefits: the provision of valuable feedback on interim findings, the potential for collaboration, flexible means of dissemination, and the value for intellectual development and capacity building (especially for graduate students). Overall, these benefits underscore a commitment to open-access research that is accessible to the public at large.